My name is Dave Stancliff. Walk down the road of life with me each day. You'll find news and my views. I'm a veteran, an independent thinker, and a former newspaper publisher and editor.
This blog is not about making money. It's a forum to share with. All views expressed are mine, unless I note otherwise.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Gotcha! Powerball prize-sharing joke hits 1M shares on Facebook

Some people have to feel real stupid tonight. Or, maybe not. Anything is worth a shot right?

A joke Facebook post by a man claiming to have a winning Powerball lottery ticket has been shared 1 million times just in the 24 hours since it was posted.

Nolan Daniels posted an image of himself on the social network holding a Powerball ticket Thursday evening. He claimed it was a winning ticket and that if his friends shared the photo, he would give a million dollars to one of them at random. As the post was made public (and remains so as of this writing), it went viral, spreading from Facebook to blogs and various websites.

Even a cursory examination of the photo shows it to be the crudest of manipulations, with the telltale signs of simple copying and pasting to make the numbers appear to be a winning permutation. And those familiar with the rules may also have noticed that the numbers are not printed in numerical order, as they would be on a real ticket.

Despite the ruse being glaringly obvious, the photo — and some folks' hopes for a cut of the dough — has spread like wildfire. NBC News has contacted Daniels for comment, and will update this post if we hear back from him. (Source)